local acoustic/folk show

Been a while since I've blogged up a poster. This is for a show at a book store in Birmingham. Green Cup Books is a great place, it's unique in that it is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and they do a lot for their neighborhood just be being there. Go support it. Buy a book, see a show, do your part. This is another place Birmingham is lucky to have and needs our support. Not to mention, these bands, both touring and local, that need your support.

Sort of a departure from what I would imagine a folk music poster to look like, but who wants to see the same old thing over and over again? Tony and I have been calling it The Crazy-Hair-Metal-Tiger-Space Poster. Enjoy.

A few shots from All In's last show.

Great White North Hardcore

If you've never heard of Comeback Kid, odds are you've never heard of us either so I won't bother you with this band's back story. Suffice it to say they're one of our favorite bands, ever, and have been since those first 2 songs surfaced on that Face Down Records sampler way back when.

These are part of a Canada-themed pitch we did for the guys a few months ago.

The first ones are fairly self explanatory, it's a beat and bloody maple leaf. The second set utilize Canada's national crest. We worked in the type treatment, or something close to it, used on their latest album, Broadcasting (which is an unbelievable, genre-defining piece of musical genius through which, if you can manage to stand still, you're probably either made of stone or at the wrong show).

Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed designing them up. Stay dope, kids.

All good things...

All In, some of our favorite people on Earth and a band we've worked with and helped build up from their first day (even to the point of playing some guitar for them early on), are calling it quits. This is sad for us but, in honor of everything they've done for us and meant to us, we designed a special edition, funeral-themed poster for the show. Old Mexico style, Day of the Dead skulls and all. If you're anywhere near central Alabama on Friday the 24th of July, do yourself a favor and get to this show. We're awfully proud of All In for everything they've accomplished. Thanks guys, for all of it.

I Am Terrified.

I Am Terrified from Birmingham needed some shirts with their name just huge on the front. Here are a couple of different layout options we did. The one on the far right is in metallic, gold-foil. We did a logo for these guys a while back that turned out pretty nice. They have an album out on Gotee Records right now and available in iTunes.

And We're BACK

So, it's been kind of a while since I posted any new work. I took a sort of hiatus while we put together some new work of a more corporate nature... boring, but you gotta keep the lights on and the computers humming. So I'm finally being able to post some recent work that applies to Machine Gun Designs. Some of these were part of pitches to labels, which means that some of them got picked up, printed and are (or were at one point) available for purchase and some of them didn't. Either way, it had been way too long without an update and I wanted to put something new out there.

So here you go.

First off, a couple of bands who the hourglass has almost run out on.

Across Five Aprils, from Chattanooga, actually hung it up late last year but these shirts have somehow eluded my attention for months. My first band played some of its first shows with these guys and they were always a blast.















All In, whom we've been working with from their very first show, are laying out their farewell tour even as I type this. They're finishing up at Cornerstone Fest in Illinois and then doing one, last show near their home town of Birmingham, Alabama. If they're coming near you, try and get to one of their shows - I promise you'll never have more fun at a hardcore show than you will seeing these guys. Also check out both their CDs, which we here at Machine Gun Designs also did the album art for: Team U.S.A. and Nothing to Lose.














Now for some metalcore. These next three bands are some of my favorites right now. Inhale Exhale, Gwen Stacy, and August Burns Red. You can not beat this stuff.

Inhale Exhale is from Ohio and if you've not heard their new album, "I Swear..." you are BLOWING it.



























Gwen Stacy, from Indy, is one of the most terrifyingly awesome bands I've heard in a long time. Ferret Music picks up some of the absolute best talent in this scene and these guys are a prime example of it.


























August Burns Red is in Europe right now, so if you're reading this in Europe, see if they're coming near you. Also they have a new album coming out in about a month, called Constellations, that promises to be INCREDIBLE. There's a new song from it up at their myspace page.













If you have ANY affinity for metalcore, you need to get into these three bands.

That's all for now. There will be more to post, hopefully next week. Getting xmachinegunx.com up has proven to be a slow, slow roll. Hopefully there will be a development in that in the next couple of weeks too. We at Machine Gun Designs are now, officially, on our grind - so stand ready.

Thanks for lookin'.

Hoover

My brother is a brilliant history teacher at Hoover High School in Birmingham, Alabama. He's the faculty sponsor for the Young Republicans Club. He had me work up a logo for them and these are a couple of the better examples I came up with. It's a fun problem to try and blend Right-Wing Conservatism with a sense of youthfulness. Almost as hard as blending Liberalism with common sense. HEY-O!!!